Torment

Torment is a 1986 American psychological horror film directed by Samson Aslanian and John Hopkins, and starring Taylor Gilbert, William Witt, and Eve Brenner. Its plot follows a young woman in San Francisco who is stalked by a sadistic killer while visiting the estate of her future mother-in-law. Released in the spring of 1986 by New World Pictures, the film received moderate critical praise, with numerous critics esteeming the intelligence of its screenplay, and several comparing it positively to Halloween (1978). Plot Bob, a lascivious middle-aged man, arrives in San Francisco and begins a string of serial killings, targeting young women. The first is Diane, whom he meets at a bar. When she rejects him, he breaks into her house and shoots her and her boyfriend Barry to death. A short time later, a second victim's corpse is found floating in the San Francisco Bay. Detective Michael Courtland begins investigating the series of killings, which he suspects are related. Obsessed with solving the case, Michael decides to postpone his impending marriage to his fiancée, Jennifer, by two weeks. Jennifer is invited to stay with Michael's wheelchair-using mother in the interim at her spacious mansion outside the city. Jennifer is apprehensive initially, but takes the opportunity to get to know Mrs. Courtland better. Unbeknownst to them, Bob has been casing the home. On Jennifer's first night there, he breaks in and watches her sleep before entering Mrs. Courtland's room. Mrs. Courtland awakens Jennifer, screaming, claiming someone was in her room. Jennifer dismisses this as a nightmare given that Mrs. Courtland had suffered a break-in some years prior. A paranoid Mrs. Courtland calls the police, but they find no evidence of a trespasser. It soon becomes clear to Jennifer that Mrs. Courtland is obsessive about protecting her home, compulsively checking that all doors and windows are locked. In the morning, the housekeeper Helen arrives on the property, and is stabbed to death by Bob moments after entering the house. While Jennifer takes the car to run errands, Mrs. Courtland is attacked by Bob, who threatens her with a pistol. Mrs. Courtland slashes his wrist with a butcher knife, causing him to drop the pistol in her lap. Armed with the gun, she barricades herself in the study and fires the gun at him through the door. She attempts to call police from another room, but Bob leaves the entryway phone off the hook, preventing her from doing so.